Another arcade show is fast approaching, this one is taking place next month on July 18th-19th in Northampton, UK. Already the event has sold over 7,000 tickets and will cater to every aspect of the arcade industry from the players on up. Several tournaments are slated to take place (including competitions on SFIV and Tekken 6) over the two day event and on top of that players will be able to pick from over 250 games to play and they can even purchase parts and see some of the latest coin-op offerings. It is shaping up to be a major show and will even be covered by some television and radio sources so we can add this yet again to the arcades are not dead argument we’re constantly pushing forward. 😉

Another great event which will have a prominent display of arcade gaming goodness is fast approaching, where this time it is the famous Midwest Gaming Classic. In addition to tons of classic gaming consoles and PCs (about 200 will be at the show) they also will have over 125 arcade and pinball machines set on free play for the public. There is more to it beyond all that which you can read about in the press release after the break but this is one event I’d love to visit one day where I love classic gaming, whether it’s on arcades or consoles.

Midwest Gaming Classic will take place on the 21st & 22nd of this month and it’s only $15 for admission on Sat. and $10 on Sunday. Kids under 12 get in free too, which is a really nice deal.

This past weekend marked the end of the Game On show in Brisbane Australia. If you have not heard of Game On, it is a “travelling, playable, history of videogames launched in 2002, at London’s Barbican gallery.” And since arcades have always played a vital role in the history of videogames, there is naturally a part of the show dedicated entirely to some of our favorite machines. They even have a Computer Space on display although I don’t think that it was playable unlike a lot of the other titles which were running on the original hardware. So they are able show off more arcade titles then they can bring along, they setup a MAME cabinet that is hooked up to a projector so people could experience a number of classics from 1978-1982.

IAAPA is just a few days away and this is unfortunately one event I will not be able to go to. But we will have information pouring in straight from the floor as our friend Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report will be there and I also hope to be able to get some info from other sources there as well. So what can we possibly expect to see at the show? Here are my guesses/predictions for now – as always the arcade companies are being very tight lipped about everything as usual so the best we can do is guess.

Andamiro: We saw Hammer 2 at ASI and AMOA so that will likely be there; the latest Pump It Up! games should be there (Pump It Up Jump would be a mild surprise – it was tested but what happened after that?) and of course Arcana Heart 2. Could we see other Examu games coming over already, such as Demon Bride? I’m not sure but they did say that AH2 would not be the only game coming over for this new hardware.

Coastal Amusements: The new Sea Wolf will be there and we then should find out how it compares to the previous game and how much it costs. If another video product were going to be there we probably would have heard by now.

GlobalVR: We were hoping to have something in advance on Justice League but it looks as though they are waiting to show it there at IAAPA. Whether it will be a cabinet or just a video of the game in action I do not know, GVR has a decent booth there so expect to see NFS:Carbon and maybe NASCAR & Sky Bandits too.

Incredible Technologies: They have a smaller booth than they did at AMOA so I think that they used that event to really show off their new stuff (Power Putt Golf, Golden Tee LIVE 09, the new pedstal cab) and this is just going to be a downsized version of that with their newest stuff.

Konami: There is a bit of talk going on about Konami making a comeback in the US and I know that they are supposed to have a booth at IAAPA but I have looked around the Expo map and I cannot find them so they might be sharing with another vendor. I think it’s a given that we will see DDR:X and uBeat but there could be some other surprises too – maybe DrumMania & Guitar Freaks or even CastleVania? UPDATE: Konami is at the Betson booth, which also is shared by none other than Raw Thrills. Could this be confirmation the Guitar Hero rumor?

Namco: They have a fairly large booth so we can expect to see more than what they had at AMOA. While it’s hard to guess what they will be showing off here since Namco has been fairly silent this year in the US, it will be very telling to see what they offer here as it will likely be a glimpse into their plans for 2009. What would be great to see there: MaxiTune 3 DX, Razing Storm, Nirin.

Raw Thrills: Big Buck Hunter and Safari should be there, including the Deluxe version of Safari. The DLX version of the game was supposed to have been released last month but I haven’t heard anything since so perhaps we’ll get a fixed date for the game this time around. American Idol should be there since it was found on test recently but who knows what they will say about the Guitar Hero rumors. Of course if GH shows up then it will be a plesant surprise. Also expect to find Nicktoons Nitro and Tokyo Drift.

Sega: Sega has a larger booth for IAAPA than they had at ASI and AMOA combined so I am curious to know what we will see there. I’d put Sega Rally 3 and Rambo into the definite category, Clay Challenge, Primeval Hunt, Mini-Rider 2 and Hummer Extreme into very likely; R-Tuned, House of the Dead EX and any surprise announcements into the ‘maybe’ section.

Stern: While Stern has a small booth, I imagine that this willb e the first chance for the public to try out the new CSI pinball. Since that is the only pin that is coming out within the next month or so it will probably be the only new product there but the Spiderman redemption game and Batman and Indiana Jones could easily make it there as well.

Other stuff: What else could possibly be seen in the world of video coin-op? I do not know if ArcSys has any presence there, maybe through a distributor we could see BlazBlue – the game is scheduled for release on Tuesday. On games like Friction and Get Outta My Face! it’s hard to say but we will be trying to find out the latest on those titles as well. I doubt that Capcom will be showing off something like Street Fighter IV or Tatsunoko Vs Capcom since they have snubbed other big arcade events in the US and where they are gearing up for the console release of those games within the next few months I wouldn’t expect them to go pushing the arcade games they don’t plan on releasing here anyways.

I am not really sure what happened with the company known as iMotion – they weren’t at AMOA and I don’t see their booth on the IAAPA map now. Perhaps Power Boat has been lost in the US. There is one company based in Taiwan that does have a booth at IAAPA though, known as Tecway Developments and I am curious to see what they will be offering. We have covered them before when it was revealed that they made a new tank arcade game called Tank Adventure – that game is still on their website and it would be cool if they have decided to bring it to the States. Maybe they will bring Rythm High as well.

So there you have it, my best guesses. It’s nothing earth-shattering I know, but we will do everything we can to cover news as it happens.

The EVO 2008 Championship Series has come and gone, being held in Las Vegas from the 8th-10th and one of our readers, Chris Ainsworth has kindly sent us a link to his page where he documented his evening at the fighting tourney.

Capcom made quite a display of fighters, providing ten Viewlix cabinets for the event. Eight cabinets featured Street fighter IV while two others featured the latest build for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Looking at the pictures you’ll notice how most, if not all of the cabinets are two player cabinets yet they are all linked, even on Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Just to veer off the subject for a moment, I really hope that this is not some new trend they are trying to set – while giving each player their own cabinet has it’s advantages, it also has the disadvantage of costing much more for the operator and taking up more space. I do find it strange that they would go to the trouble of making these 2p cabs if there is no intention of using them in that manner so hopefully it is just an option to link them. I don’t buy for a second that the hardware is incapable of handing two people on the same cabinet, the extra processing involved is minimal in adding a second player especially for this type of game and even if this were true it shouldn’t be difficult to upgrade the hardware as it’s just a custom PC.

Anyways, back to EVO 2008. Who says that fighters are dead? The event here certainly looks like it was a success. They also had Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix running on an Xbox 360 in a kiosk and Blazblue was at the show for at least one day. They also had a number of consoles there but the main focus was on the arcades. From Chris’s description, it sounds like he enjoyed Tatsunoko vs Capcom the most, even though it’s currently in an unfinished state. If Capcom does manage to take care of the licensing then who knows, this could be the next Marvel Vs. Capcom.

In addition to the pics Chris provided, he also took some video, embedded below. Enjoy!

An upcoming gaming event to be held in Edinburgh, UK is going to feature a familiar face here at AH – Kevin Williams, the man behind The Stinger Report & it’s news feeds. Kevin will bring the face of arcade gaming to the event in a 40 minute seminar that will cover three important aspects of arcades and their overall impact on video games, which includes Immersion, Physicality and Connectivity.The seminar will take place on August 11th in the afternoon and is one of the few instances of the amusement sector making a showing at an event that is going to have more focus on console gaming. The press release is after the jump.

It should be interesting to see how his seminar shapes up and how it will be received by those who come to the show, I’m sure Kevin will be happy to give us feedback on how it goes. Good luck Kevin!